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Attorney: Kim Gottschalk
Case Update
The tenth meeting in the search for consensus on the American
Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples took place in La Paz, Bolivia from April 23-27, 2007. Once again, the atmosphere proved to be more positive than sessions held in Washington, D.C. President Evo Morales, an indigenous person himself, invited indigenous representatives to the Presidential Palace on two occasions. In the actual drafting sessions, agreement was reached on paragraphs concerning education, spirituality and indigenous health. At the beginning of the session, the United States made a statement that it would take a general reservation to all text discussed at the session and would not be bound by anything which was agreed to. They later explained that the reason for this statement was so the U.S. would not obstruct the flow of discussion with objection they indicated that any agreed upon text would be taken back to Washington and a decision made within two weeks on whether the U.S. would concur. More than six months later, we still have not heard from the U.S.
The United States also floated a statement of Principle on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which it hoped would be considered alongside the text of the declaration and presented for approval at the June, 2008 General Assembly in Panama. There was no discussion of those principles at the session. The next session has not yet been scheduled. It will be interesting to see what effect the adoption of the U.N. Declaration will have on the process in the OAS.
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